Three elderly customers of UCO Bank’s Dibrugarh branch have complaint of losing over Rs 36.6 lakh after cash was withdrawn from their accounts by alleged fraudulent means.

Dibrugarh police station officer-in-charge Siddheswar Bora on Thursday said the incidents came to light after a 75-year-old retired professor of Dibrugarh Hanumanbax Surajmall Kanoi (DHSK) Commerce College, Madan Mohan Goswami, lodged a complaint at the bank about the “disappearance” of Rs 10.8 lakh from his savings bank account.

An internal inquiry by the bank found that the amount was withdrawn through a UCO Bank branch in Hyderabad through a single cheque on September 24.

Bora said the retired professor’s phone number got blocked the same the day the withdrawal was made and hence he did not receive any intimation. “We suspect that the scamsters cloned the phone number of the customer too.”

Talking to The Telegraph, Goswami said, “I did not receive any intimation about the withdrawal because my phone was blocked. I don’t know how it happened. The next day I went to change my SIM card and after receiving the new SIM of the same number, a message came through from which I came to know that somebody withdrew my money through a duplicate cheque. If banks are not safe then where will we deposit our hard-earned money?”

During investigation, it was found that the branch manager of the Hyderabad UCO Bank branch had also called Goswami’s phone number before executing the transaction. The cheque was encashed only after getting the confirmation from the customer, Bora added.

However, the retired professor has denied receiving any call from the bank.

Based on his FIR, a case was registered by the police on September 29 at Dibrugarh police station under Sections 406/420 of the IPC.

The other two cases in the same branch were detected on Wednesday (October 3) after the bank authorities carried out an internal investigation on all big-ticket transactions carried out by them recently.

It was discovered that two transactions were carried out in a similar manner in the names of two of its customers.

In one case, Rs 15 lakh was withdrawn from the account of R.K. Garodia of RK Garodia and Sons Ltd, while Rs 10.8 lakh was withdrawn from the account of Bisweswar Chakraborty.

The bank informed both the customers about the withdrawal.

In both the cases, the alleged fraudulent transactions were carried out through cheques from a Chennai-based branch of UCO Bank on September 20.

Garodia on Thursday filed an FIR at Dibrugarh police station and a case has been registered under Sections 120 (b),406/420/467/468 IPC.

Till Thursday, Chakra-borty had not filed an FIR.

UCO Bank Dibrugarh branch manager Acharjee Sonowal said, “We have launched an inquiry into the three cases. The two branches at Hyderabad and Chennai from where the transactions were carried out are also carrying out their own investigation. The customers will get back their money if it is established that they have not done the transactions.”

Asked whether any bank officials were involved in the case, Sonowal said right now he could not say anything because of the internal inquiry. “I have already reported the incidents to my senior officials,” he said.

The manager said all the accounts were savings accounts.

“We have received two FIRs and have began the initial probe. We are not ruling out the involvement of bank staff in the case. People’s hard-earned money is involved and the victims were all senior citizens. We can assure you that a meticulous probe will be conducted,” Bora said.